


Teen Idle

by astropocalypse



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: A fanfic based on a song based on a character, Again, Character Study, Gen, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason Todd-centric, Songfic, major ones, sort of implied he's on his way to becoming Hood?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:20:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29845548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astropocalypse/pseuds/astropocalypse
Summary: The pretty lies, the ugly truth.This is Jason's story.(Character study based on the song Teen Idle by Marina and the Diamonds)
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul & Jason Todd, sort of implied?
Comments: 8
Kudos: 27





	Teen Idle

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to this song when I was struck by how much it fit Jason. So of course I had to write a songfic about it. This is the result.
> 
> Shout out to Cthulhu from the White Collar/Batman discord for betaing this for me. You're awesome!

_I wanna be a bottle blonde  
I don't know why but I feel conned_

Jason never truly had a childhood. Between caring for his mother whenever she used their already tight funds to drug herself into oblivion, avoiding his piece-of-shit father’s fists and broken bottles, scavenging the dumpsters for his next “meal”, and regularly dressing up in panties to go fight crime, things like popularity and school were rarely important enough to worry about.

_I wanna be an idle teen  
I wish I hadn't been so clean_

He always had to be responsible, aware, serious- in a life where deathly challenges were the norm, he couldn’t allow himself to be caught off guard. Even after moving into the Manor, he put so much effort into being ~~a good son~~ a good solider in Bruce’s little army that he’d never really hung out with friends or had any hobbies. He never had the chance to just be a kid.

_I wanna stay inside all day  
I want the world to go away  
I want blood, guts, and chocolate cake  
I wanna be a real fake_

Some days, the green was too powerful, and he was filled with overwhelming rage at all that had been stolen from him. Forever the street rat, the cheap mockup, the unwanted and disgraced son. Betrayed, abandoned, cast aside so many times for a better model.

_Yeah, I wish I'd been, I wish I'd been, a teen, teen idle  
Wish I'd been a prom queen, fighting for the title  
Instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible  
Feeling super, super, super suicidal_

So much time spent fighting in Batman’s little crusade, and for what? To get himself tortured and killed by a psycho clown, left alone to drown in his own blood, crying for help he knew wouldn’t come in time if at all. So much of his life, so many opportunities, gone down the drain.

_The wasted years, the wasted youth  
The pretty lies, the ugly truth_

So many lies he only saw through once he finished his little swim in the lime Kool-Aid, so much revealed to him. So much he had learned that had been hidden from him before, using the feeble excuse of “morality”. He could finally see clearly, how little anyone had really cared about him beyond his use as cannon fodder. All that talk of family, of love and loyalty- all the ugly truth seeping out, red as the blood on his hands.

_And the day has come where I have died  
Only to find, I've come alive_

And soon... they would all pay.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I'm evil like that :)
> 
> Please drop a comment, it means so much to me and I love to hear what you guys think!  
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> -Astro :)


End file.
